In the morning it rained lightly until about 10:00. Then it stopped and I strung up a clothesline and hung up the clothes I had handwashed last night. I knew it might rain again, but how long could I hold onto a bunch of damp clothes before they started to mildew?
Then I took the 11:00 train to Chicago. I started off by revisiting the Crown Fountain. After a good look at a huge metal construction of a dinosaur, I went back to just sit for a while and watch the action at the fountain.This time I sat next to a white man who was obviously enjoying himself supervising his Afro-American grandchild of about ten. I asked him, " Does watching these kids have such a good time make you wish you were ten again?"
"Oh, yes it does," was his response.
I don't know about myself. It was also very pleasant to just sit and watch and not have to actually do anything.
My next goal for the day was to walk part of The Magnificent Mile, the stretch of Chicago where all of the the expensive name-brand stores are located. While walking there I saw something which I had never seen before. There was a man in the process of setting up a series of six stands, each holding a chess board and chess or checker pieces where for three dollars you could play chess or checkers for as long as you wanted - either with him or with whoever you wanted. He waved me over when he saw me looking at him, but I just waved back and kept walking. But then I thought, "How can I be too busy to pass this up?" and I went back to chat him up and then play him a game.
"How long have you been doing this?" I asked.
"About twelve years now."
" I've never seen anything like this. Where did you get the idea?"
"I don't know. It came to me in a dream."
" How do you transport it? I don't see any vehicle around."
" It all folds up into one small package and I put it on a cart and take it with me on the train. I'm an artist. I designed this myself. It's the only one in the world."
I offered to play a game with him and we went at it. I got off to a good start and picked up a couple pawns, but it didn't take him that long to turn the tables on me. Well, I couldn't feel bad about losing to a guy who's been playing almost every day for the past twelve years. I gladly gave him my three dollars and moved on.
The "Magnificent Mile" seemed a lot more impressive in the AAA Tour Book than on the ground. It did indeed have all of the expensive high class stores as advertised, but the buildings themselves were somewhat old, rather boxy and not very interesting.
After a few blocks I turned into a Borders Book Store and took the opportunity to rest my feet and read a bit over a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. I skimmed a book by a climatologist who explained what catastrophic things would happen at particular places in the world (including Manhattan) over the next 30-50 years if we did not take action now to prevent them. It was not exactly a Doomsday book, but not a "feel-good" book either.
Behind where I was sitting, two men were playing chess. When they finished I got into a brief conversation with them and ended up playing the loser. I could see why he was the loser. He wasn't very good, and beating him wasn't much of a challenge.
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